LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Had Thursday's Bellarmine-Lewis basketball game been a boxing match, it would have been a first round knockout.
 
The 15th-ranked Knights walloped the Flyers with a 17-0 run to open the game, and Lewis never recovered as Bellarmine ran out to an easy 87-53 victory Thursday night in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest in Knights Hall.
 
Bellarmine (15-3, 7-1 GLVC) dominated in virtually every phase of the game and got solid contributions from up and down the lineup in recording the victory.

The Knights outshot Lewis 53.7 percent to 32.7 percent and made 12 triples to just five for the Flyers. The Knights also won the battle of the backboards 37-28 and had four fewer turnovers.
 
Meanwhile, 12 of the 13 Bellarmine players who saw action hit the scoring column. Bellarmine's scoring was so spread out that despite ringing up 87 points on the scoreboard, only Adam Eberhard (14) and Rusty Troutman (12) hit double digits for the Knights.
 
"It was an amazing performance," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport.  "I'm very proud of our players. When you outscore a team by 21 points from the 3-point line, the score is always going to be skewed, and that was the case tonight. But give our guys a lot of credit; they made the shots. This was a program win, one that you take great pride in…the assistant coaches and the scouting report, the players and their attention…and the crowd was super."
 
Bellarmine opened the game by missing five of their first six shots against Lewis' zone defense. However, the Knights recovered by making their next six attempts including three from beyond the arc.
 
Although the Knights' offense was a bit slow in the beginning, the Bellarmine defense was outstanding from the opening tip. By the time Lewis finally scored—at the 11:39 mark of the first half—the Flyers found themselves in a 17-2 hole and never got closer than 13 the rest of the way.

The Knights took a 47-15 lead into the locker room at halftime and expanded the cushion to as many as 41 during the second period. 
 
In addition to Eberhard's and Troutman's offensive efforts, Al Davis and Tyler Jenkins chipped in nine points apiece while Ben Weyer, Daniel Ramser and Brent Bach all totaled eight points for the Knights.
 
Davis was the game's top rebounder as the 5-9 senior ripped down eight boards. Troutman and Jarek Coles each had four assists for Bellarmine, which had 19 as a team.
 
Freshman guard Adam Pischke tossed in 15 points and grabbed six rebounds to pace  Lewis, which slipped to 11-7, 6-2 GLVC.
 
Bellarmine's victory propelled the Knights back into a tie for the GLVC East lead, because Southern Indiana knocked off Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday night in Evansville to give all three teams identical 7-1 conference records.
 
The Rangers, who had won 15 in a row prior to losing to USI, will visit Bellarmine on Saturday at 3:15 p.m.
 
For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow us on Twitter (@BUKnights), Instagram (BUKnights), Facebook (BUKnights) and the BUKnights mobile app available for iPhone and Android.
 
BOX SCORE (HTM)